Rich Dad/Legacy Education in Portland, Oregon.... WTF!
So by a series of circumstances my wife and I end up signing up for this 3-day Real Estate Investing seminar put on by Rich Dad/Legacy Education. Holy Sh**! What can I say other than this; An interesting approach/experience in human psychology and praying on the desperate and uneducated.
We left at lunch on the second day (today) and don't plan sitting through another minute of it. We paid $300 ($150 each) to go to this thing. The outline if the seminar said they would be going over many different avenues of RE investments and basic investing techniques. I am by no means a seasoned investor, but I'm not that green either. Just wanted to expand my horizons as we learn more and build our investment business.
It was more like a religious revival than an educational seminar. The speaker spent 90% of the time talking about how "rich" he is because he is smarter than us. And we can also "become smart" by giving them $35,000 to $45,000 dollars to enlighten us. We are trapped by our poor attitudes and small minds. If we don't believe him and don't want to pay him, then we are weak and will never succeed.
I gotta say folks, our BS detectors were going off like crazy after the first 30 minutes Friday morning but I had already cleared my schedule, so what the hell. The speaker I believe was genuinely a smart guy who has worked hard and wants to help people. But almost every single person there had ZERO investing experience, very little money and are looking to better themselves and their station in life.
I could see the wide eyes and the nearly salivating mouths from some of these people at the prospect of what this dude was selling. I wanted to jump out of my seat and yell 'This is BS!" Luckily someone else did it before I did and was nicely escorted out of the ballroom.
Here is my main beef. Many of these people are desperate to make a change in their lives and I can identify with that. I went through that phase myself and continue to work at it when I feel necessary. But these 'Guru's' are very skilled at using the psychology or fear, wealth, lost opportunity, security and love, to break down peoples barriers and get them to sign up for something that is beyond their scope and skill level to complete. I do think some people will buy this and may even do well at it, but some of these folks could't follow the simple math of a basic RE deal yet looked eager to shell out $30,000 in financed tuition to be taught significantly complex transaction like lease options, short sales, tax liens, etc. They are being set up to FAIL! Will they get their money back if they fail? Hell no they won't.
That's my rant people. BEWARE. We lost $300, no big deal. We learned a little about real estate and A LOT about shady marketing practices.